Conor McGregor Respects CM Punk Despite His Humbling Loss At UFC 203

Conor McGregor has taken a number of pot-shots at WWE stars recently, but despite watching CM Punk get tapped out in just a couple of minute by Mickey Gall at UFC 203 on Saturday night, ‘The Notorious’ resisted the urge to stick the boot in.

“I’ll tell you what, fair play to him,” McGregor told TMZ. “Because he got in there and fought, and not a lot of people do. Not a lot of people have the balls to make that walk, so fair play.

“Got his ass whooped. God bless, he got his ass whooped. Those WWE guys are straight pu****s, I told you so, but he isn’t. He got in and fought. So fair play to him. Respect.”

During the pay-per-view broadcast on Saturday night, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan also gave his post-fight assessment of the former WWE superstar.

“What [Punk] did was great, it was courageous,” Rogan said. “But it was delusional. That’s my feeling. My feeling when I was watching him hit the bag, when I was watching him train, and when I was watching him hit things. It’s not like he can’t ever learn, but there’s a journey as a martial artist, and there’s a path that each martial artist [is] on. And different people are on different paths. There’s a reason brown belts don’t compete with white belts in jiu-jitsu tournaments. It’s because it’s not fair. And what we saw tonight is not fair.

“Mickey Gall’s way better. He’s really good. I watched that kid roll, I watched him take the back when he fought Mike Jackson — he’s really good. And I just think that this is what happens when you take a guy who’s an elite young kid and you have him fight someone’s who a celebrity and wants to challenge himself. It’s not the way to do it.

“If I had to give CM Punk some advice — I hate to harp on this — I’d say fight as an amateur. Fight people at your level. He wants to do this, he wants to challenge himself, he wants to continue — God bless him. He’s a fun guy. I like him. But this is not the way to do it.”

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.

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